In general, a PTP sheet (so-called blister sheet) consists of a container film that is formed with pocket parts into which tablets etc. are loaded, and a sealing film which is air tightly attached to the container film so as to seal the opening sides of the pocket parts. Prior to the stage of attaching the sealing film to the container film, the pocket part of the container film is filled with a tablet, etc.
As a filling device which automatically fills the container film with tablets, etc., a device that is equipped with a rotary drum and a tablet feeding chute arranged adjacently to an upper part of the rotary drum is known (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-219908). Many recesses for conveying tablets are formed on an outer surface of the rotary drum. These recesses are configured to match with a size and a circular shape of the tablets in plan view, and are arranged by an interval which matches with an interval between the pocket parts formed on the container film.
In this arrangement, when the tablets are sequentially discharged from the tablet feeding chute to the rotary drum, the tablets are held in the recesses. When the rotary drum is rotated further and the tablets are guided to the lower part of the rotary drum, the tablets will fall into the pocket parts to fill the pocket parts.
In recent years, the configuration of a tablet are not necessarily limited to a circular shape in plan view, but tablets of various shapes, such as a triangular, rectangular, or rhombus shape, may also be manufactured. However, according to the technology disclosed by the above noted patent publication, only the recesses corresponding to the tablet of circular shape in plan view is provided. Therefore, the recess for the circular tablet could not properly accommodate other shapes of tablet, such as a triangular, rectangular, rhombus shape, and thus, there arises a situation where posture of a tablet is changed or a positional displacement of the tablet is caused in the recess. In that case, there is a problem that the tablets guided by the recesses of the rotary drum cannot correctly fall on the pocket parts of the container film.
In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a tablet filling device and a PTP packaging machine having improved quality and productivity by correctly filling the tablets into the pocket parts of the container film even when the form of the tablets are not circular shape in plan view.